


The Geography of Light

by slash4femme



Category: NCIS
Genre: Cuddling, Kissing, M/M, implied nudity. Also spoilers for Season 6 episode 13 Broken Bird, swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-29 11:20:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3894451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slash4femme/pseuds/slash4femme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gibbs has a problem that won't go away. </p>
            </blockquote>





	The Geography of Light

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in 2009. I do not change/edit my older work, merely upload it here.

I.

Gibbs had a problem, one he’d had for a long time actually and completely failed to face up to. At least he had failed to face up to it until Ducky was stabbed in the middle of one of Gibbs’ crime scenes. Then everything changed. When Ducky was stabbed Gibbs went on the warpath. There where two ways Gibbs dealt with cases that got out of his control and all his agents could recognize the signs of either and the quiet intense approach was never a good sign. His team had done the best they could they’d done their jobs and stayed out of Gibbs way. Gibbs had sat by Ducky’s bed, talked to his doctor’s held his uninjured hand. He’d done his best to help Ducky though an incredibly hard case. Even after the case ended though Gibbs still didn’t feel any better, which left him pacing around his house wondering why he felt like he’d let Ducky down. Because you’re a coward, he told himself and sighed, slumping onto his own couch. A coward with commitment issues and a hard time admitting what he wanted. What he needed. Gibbs closed his eyes, counted to ten and then got up and paced around his living room again.Ducky was probably fine, not great all things considered, but fine, having a good comforting evening at home with that lady doctor friend of his. Gibbs changed direction and paced around his living room the other way.

Ducky was his friend, Ducky was in fact his best friend, and Gibbs wasn’t the kind of man to have best friends. He was good and kind, and gentle and so extremely tactile with his affections. A characteristic that had been plaguing Gibbs for years, and complicating his life in ways that he simple couldn’t deal with. Except of course then this last case had happened and Gibbs had, had to see Ducky sitting in a pool of his own blood, while Gibbs had been helpless to stop it. Helpless to protect Ducky. Gibbs swore softly and headed out to his car.

 

II.

All the lights were on when Gibbs got to Ducky’s house. He got out of the car and started up the path to the house almost running headlong into Ducky’s lady doctor friend. He nodded at her and she murmured a polite hello as they awkwardly tried to move around each other.

“Jethro?” Ducky looked slightly mystified when he opened the door to Gibbs’ nock.

“Ducky.” Gibbs suddenly was very unsure about what to do with his hands so he shoved them both in his pockets and looked down at Ducky.

“Are you going to come in?” Ducky was almost smiling as he stood back from the door and Gibbs acknowledged it with a small smile of his own before stepping inside. Ducky led the way to the living room before sitting down on the couch.

“Now Jethro, please tell me what brings you here this evening?” Ducky tilted his head slightly a smile still tugging at the corners of his mouth but Gibbs could see that Ducky was tired, and still deeply distressed from the case. He sighed softly staring up at the ceiling. Coming here had been a mistake, he couldn’t make things better, he could only complicate them further, and Ducky didn’t need that. In essence what Gibbs had come here to do was a very selfish thing, inspired only by the fact that he had come so close to losing Ducky. What would he have done if Ducky had been fatally stabbed? Gibbs couldn’t even begin to think of that, his mind simple refused to comprehend the possibility. On the couch Ducky cleared his throat and Gibbs jerked back to the reality that he was in fact standing in Ducky’s living room and he hadn’t answered Ducky’s question yet. He took his hand out of his pockets and clasped them together in front of himself, then unclasped them and stuffed them in his pockets again.

“Jethro?” Ducky was watching him carefully, eyes slightly narrow. “What have you done?”

Gibbs blinked at that. “I haven’t done anything Duck.”

Ducky’s eyebrows rose in an expression that clearly stated Ducky found that hard to believe and Gibbs’ sighed and sat down on the couch next to Ducky.

“I haven’t done anything yet.”

“Aright then.” Ducky turned slowly and a little stiffly to face Gibbs on the couch. “What are you going to do that has you so concerned Jethro?”

Gibbs sighed again and scrubbed both hands across his face. “I’m in love.”

“Oh.” Ducky leaned back slightly against the arm of the couch watching Gibbs and Gibbs took his hand away from his face.

“Oh?”

“Well excuse me for not being too shocked by this Jethro. Seeing as how this is hardly the first time you’ve come to be with this particular revelation.”

“This is slightly different.” Still Gibbs couldn’t help but smile, leaning his chin on his firsts and watching Ducky. Even extremely tired and stressed Ducky still managed to be a practical, stable influence on him, not to mention attractive, but he wasn’t going there right now.

This time Ducky sighed and closed his eyes briefly. “How is this different Jethro?”

Gibbs clenched his hands together into fists and bit the bullet. “Because I’m in love with you.”

Ducky just stared at him and Gibbs began to get a bad feeling about this whole situation. He should have stayed home and drunken whisky until he forgot what Ducky had looked like with a knife through his hand. Gibbs stood and paced to the other side of the room and then started back.

“Jethro.” Gibbs looked up at Ducky and Ducky got up off the couch. “Thirty years, four marriages, you get blown up twice and I get stabled through the hand, and now, and now you decide to tell me this?”During his speech Ducky had been advancing on Gibbs until he finally came to a stop in front of Gibbs. Gibbs blinked down at Ducky noting that Ducky looked almost angry, and Gibbs did the only thing left to him in that situation. He kissed Ducky. He half expected Ducky to push him away but instead Ducky seemed to melt against his Ducky’s arms going around Gibbs’ waist, and Gibbs held Ducky gently around the shoulders, and couldn’t help but feel surprised when Ducky’s lips parted under his own.

“I’ll take that as some sort of a ‘yes’.” Gibbs smiled down at the smaller man when the parted finally.

“Don’t be an idiot Jethro.” Ducky told him fondly. “You do remember where the bedroom is?”

“Aren’t I supposed to buy you dinner first?” Gibbs didn’t let go of Ducky’s waist as the headed for the stares.

“You have been buying me dinner for thirty years. I really am not that old fashioned.” Ducky pointed out and Gibbs laughed softly and pulled Ducky close to kiss him again.

 

III.

“I might be too old to be doing this all night.” Gibbs stated curled next to Ducky several hours later.

“No giving in to temptation and making love in the living room, that you or I would have been to old for. Here we have a nice bed, and I don’t see why we can’t take our time.” Ducky sounded quite pleased with himself.

“You wanted . . . in the living room?” At that Ducky actually did laugh, and Gibbs rolled him gently over so that they were facing and kissed him.

“Well I have been waiting quite some time.” Ducky reached up and traced the lines on Gibbs’ face.

Gibbs closed his eyes and leaned into Ducky’s touch. “Please tell me you haven’t been waiting thirty years.”

“No.” Ducky shook his head. “Not that long.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Ducky dropped his hand and Gibbs leaned forward to press his face against Ducky’s shoulder, and Ducky sighed.

“Because Jethro, I learned long ago that no one can simply tell you anything, you need to figure it out on your own.” Ducky paused as if considering for a moment his hand tracing down the curve of Gibbs’ bare shoulder and arm. “It’s rather childish of you really.”

Gibbs laughed softly, “and after thirty years you feel like you can tell me that?” He pulled Ducky close and kissed the top of Ducky’s head and Ducky snuggled against him.

“No I can tell you that because you said you loved me.” Ducky told him sounding completely self-satisfied and Gibbs smiled and pressed his face into Ducky’s neck. Ducky let Gibbs snuggle for a moment then took him by the shoulders and pushed him away a little, looking at him seriously. “You do know that I love you, don’t you Jethro?” Ducky’s voice was as serious as he looked and Gibbs traced the soft angles of Ducky’s face and nodded also serious. After moment Ducky pulled him close cupping Gibbs’ face and kisses him deeply. Gibbs’ opened his mouth and letting Ducky taste and explore him, one of Ducky’s hands drifting down to make patterns against Gibbs’ bare chest. Gibbs wondered briefly where Ducky got so much energy and whether Ducky was trying to make up for lost time. Then Ducky gently pushed at Gibbs shoulder so that Gibbs was lying flat on the bed and kissed his way down Gibbs’ neck and Gibbs’ discovered that he’d been wrong earlier and then decided to stop thinking all together.

 

IV.

Gibbs had a problem. The problem was that on the job, when he was at NCIS, he was expected to act in a certain way. His team depended on it. They depended on him to be unshakable, unfeeling, unafraid of anything, almost superhuman in his ability to intimidate and to control the situation no matter what. The times he hadn’t been able to do that the team had just about fallen apart. They needed him to be ‘the boss’ and he was good at that, good at hiding his feelings and pretending he didn’t have any. He was good at being one hard unfeeling bastard. On the other hand it was pretty much impossible to be a hard unfeeling bastard when you were also helplessly in love, stupidly in love. The kind of in love where all you want to do is walk around being nice to people and telling them how wonderful your lover is, how happy you are, how wonderful life is. Gibbs’ hadn’t been in love like that since the first time and he’d pretty much thought he’d never be in love like that again. Until now, until Ducky.

When Gibbs stepped into the bullpen that morning he went into hyper-drive, he yelled at all his agents, made Ziva write her reports from the previous case over again, head slapped Tony so many times that by the end of the morning every time Gibbs came anywhere near him Tony would automatically finch. When he almost reduced McGee to tears sometime after lunch Gibbs decided he might be over compensating just a little. He bought McGee a coffee to make up for it, which unfortunately seemed to shock McGee just as much as the constant yelling had. Ziva had taken to only being at her desk when absolutely necessary and would make for Abby’s lab whenever possible. Gibbs’ avoided autopsy altogether. It was just too much temptation, Gibbs was pretty sure if he saw Ducky all professionalism would go straight out the window and he’d start grinning like an idiot. Finally though Gibbs looked up from his computer to discover that it was time to start thinking about calling it a day. He finished off the report he was writing, turned off his computer, and headed for the elevator.

Ducky looked up from his own computer when Gibbs came through the door of autopsy.

“Jethro! Work or pleasure?” Ducky smiles up at him and Gibbs can’t help but smile back, smile and maybe blush a little, dear god he was really that far gone.

“I know last night you said our relationship was past dating.” Gibbs came to lean against Ducky’s desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “But I was wondering if you’d go out to dinner with me tonight?”

Ducky swiveled his chair around to face Gibbs and smiling up at him. “Why of course.”Ducky reached out and touched Gibbs, gently on the wrists, a small intimate gesture the kind of which they’d regularly shared through their whole friendship, except this time Gibbs felt a shock go through him at Ducky’s touch. He couldn’t help himself; he uncrossed his arms and caught Ducky’s hand briefly in his own, before letting it go and standing. Ducky also stood and Gibbs helped him fetch his hat and coat.

They rode the elevator in silence, Gibbs not trusting himself not to hit the emergency stop and kiss Ducky right there and then if he let himself thing about it too hard. Ducky didn’t look at him but Gibbs was pretty sure Ducky knew how Gibbs was feeling. It was in the way Ducky seemed to radiate happiness, and a minute Ducky started humming to himself happily under his breath.

“Shit.” Ducky glanced up startled and Gibbs should his head “Left some case files on my desk.” It was stupid, the kind of little thing he would have remembered if he hadn’t been so completely distracted by Ducky all day. Ducky only nodded and Gibbs hit the button to take them back to the bullpen.

They stepped out of the elevator together, Gibbs barely noticing that none of his agents had gone home yet although they looked like they wanted to.

“Everyone go home, get some rest!” He barked on his way past just in case they’d planned on staying. Ducky waited patiently as Gibbs grabbed the files he needed and then turned back toward Ducky. Ducky smiles and then completely casually took Gibbs’ arm, clasping Gibbs hand in his and entwining their fingers as they headed back toward the elevator. For the second time that day Gibbs found he simply couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face, and this time he didn’t give a damn who saw them.   
 


End file.
